Japanese National Sentenced to 20 Years for Trying to Sell Weapons-Grade Plutonium to Iran and Flood New York with Drugs

NEW YORK – A Japanese national was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring to traffic nuclear materials – including weapons-grade plutonium – from Burma to other countries, while simultaneously attempting to sell hundreds of kilograms of heroin and methamphetamine for distribution on the streets of New York, federal prosecutors announced.

Takeshi Ebisawa, 61, previously pleaded guilty to six counts before U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in the Southern District of New York. The sentence also includes five years of supervised release.

According to court documents and evidence presented during the investigation, Ebisawa led an international criminal network spanning Japan, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, and the United States. Between 2019 and his arrest in April 2022, the Drug Enforcement Administration conducted an undercover operation in which Ebisawa unwittingly negotiated four separate criminal transactions with a DEA agent posing as a narcotics and weapons trafficker.

In the most alarming transaction, Ebisawa attempted to broker the sale of nuclear materials – initially uranium, then plutonium – to an undercover agent’s associate posing as an Iranian general in charge of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Ebisawa boasted that plutonium would be even “better” and more “powerful” than uranium for Iran’s use.

In February 2022, Ebisawa and two co-conspirators met the undercover agent in Thailand, where they showed samples of the nuclear materials. Thai authorities seized the samples and transferred them to U.S. law enforcement. A U.S. nuclear forensic laboratory determined the samples contained detectable quantities of uranium, thorium, and weapons-grade plutonium.

Ebisawa sought in exchange to obtain military-grade weapons – including surface-to-air missiles – for an ethnic insurgent group in Burma.

Separately, Ebisawa conspired to sell 500 kilograms of methamphetamine and 500 kilograms of heroin to the undercover agent, intending the drugs to be distributed in New York. In June and September 2021, a co-conspirator provided samples in Thailand: approximately one kilogram of methamphetamine with 98% purity and 1.4 kilograms of heroin with 86-87% purity.

Ebisawa also laundered $100,000 in purported narcotics proceeds from the United States to Japan, taking a 15% commission.

“National security and public safety are the very tenets of DEA’s mission, and this case demonstrates our ability to dismantle the world’s most dangerous criminal networks,” said DEA Administrator Terrance Cole. “Today’s sentence should send a clear message: threatening the United States by trafficking nuclear materials, narcotics, and military-grade weapons will trigger an uncompromising response.”

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said Ebisawa’s crimes included “an attempt to sell weapons-grade plutonium to Iran and to flood New York with deadly narcotics.”

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York called the illicit trafficking of nuclear materials “an existential threat to every New Yorker and every American.”

Second Man Charged in Hawaii Execution-Style Killing Over Meth Debt

HONOLULU – A second man has been charged with murder for allegedly gunning down a victim outside his home on March 27, 2021, over an unpaid methamphetamine debt, federal prosecutors announced.

Taliau Tauvela-Afalava, 31, of Aiea, Hawaii, made his initial court appearance yesterday after a superseding indictment added him as a co-defendant alongside Filimone Tavake, 38, of San Francisco. Tavake was indicted on March 21, 2024, and arrested the following day.

According to court documents, Tauvela-Afalava and Tavake killed the victim in connection with a drug distribution conspiracy. The victim was standing outside his home when he was shot multiple times.

Surveillance footage obtained during the investigation showed a vehicle with no license plates driving near the victim’s home shortly before the shooting. The vehicle parked, and two males were captured on video walking toward the street where the victim lived. Minutes later, gunshots were heard, and the same two males were seen running back to the vehicle.

Law enforcement later identified and located the vehicle. An analysis of the vehicle’s infotainment system linked it to phone numbers connected to both Tavake and Tauvela-Afalava.

Tauvela-Afalava faces charges that include using and discharging a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, causing death through the use of a firearm, killing while engaged in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, and conspiracy to distribute and possess methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Queens Accountant Sentenced to 2 Years for Laundering $20M in Drug Proceeds for Mexican Cartel

NEW YORK – A New York City woman was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison for laundering more than $20 million in drug trafficking proceeds, including cash tied to heroin and cocaine sales by a Mexican cartel-linked organization, federal prosecutors announced.

Rui Fang Yu, 40, of Manhattan, pleaded guilty in August 2025 to one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. She used her position as an accountant at an airline ticket consolidator in Flushing, Queens, to funnel drug money through her employer’s bank accounts, according to court documents.

The scheme employed trade-based money laundering, a complex method that disguises illegal proceeds as legitimate business transactions – in this case, ostensibly for the purchase of airline tickets. Yu accepted large amounts of cash from co-conspirators involved in laundering drug proceeds, including from the sale of heroin and cocaine by a U.S.-based drug trafficking organization linked to a Mexican cartel.

Ultimately, Yu and her co-conspirators facilitated the transfer of laundered funds to accounts controlled by associates in both the United States and China.

“The Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section’s mission is to take the profit out of crime, eliminate drug cartels, and protect the U.S. financial system,” the Justice Department said in a statement.